Democratic lawmakers announced legislation Thursday intended to make it harder for public-sector workers to opt out of paying union dues, a right granted to them Wednesday by the Supreme Court.

The legislation would strengthen labor contracts that require workers, including non-union ones, to continue making payments.

The court’s 5-4 ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said it violated public-sector workers’ First Amendment rights to require them to pay their workplace’s union regular fees — common requirement in union contracts, dubbed a “security clause” — unless the employee “affirmatively consents to pay.”

So, if the employee ever signed anything, even unknowingly, that approved a deduction, the union can cite that to argue that the worker cannot exercise his rights under Janus.

The text of the legislation was not available, but in a joint statement Thursday, the lawmakers said the legislation would require that all public employers “recognize the employees’ labor organization … and to commit any agreements to writing in a contract or memorandum of understanding.”

That would put public employers in the position of siding with the union in any case when there was a dispute over whether a worker could invoke his rights under Janus. The legislation is dubbed the “Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.”[…]

“This bill would force all 50 states to give monopoly bargaining powers to Big Labor, in a gross violation of the rights of public employees and the rights of those states’ policymakers. Monopoly bargaining has been a failure in the private sector, and a disaster in the public sector, for every state that has implemented it,” said Greg Mourad, vice president of the National Right to Work Committee. “Now the national Democrats want to force it on the rest of the states as well. It’s an obvious payback to the union bosses who spend $2 billion every election cycle to help them get elected.”